Word: idie
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Only one shadow mars this idyllic land: that of Uganda's porcine President-for-Life, Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada, 49, a man of mercurial personality, who in a short six years has caught the world's attention with his unpredictable and often deadly antics. He is killer and clown, big-hearted buffoon and strutting martinet. He can be as playful as a kitten and as lethal as a lion. He stands 6 ft. 4 in. tall and carries a massive bulk of nearly 300 lbs., and within that girth courses the unharnessed ego of a small child...
Late Friday morning in Washington, Paul Chepkwurui, the Ugandan chargé d'affaires, assured the State Department that Amin "merely wants to meet the people to reassure them that nothing will happen to them." Later, reporters asked Chepkwurui why Idi Amin was detaining the Americans. "Well, you know," said the diplomat blithely, "there are some bad people in Uganda, and maybe if some of these missionaries tried to leave on their own, they might be harassed or something...
...misrule. The economy is a shambles. Nobody is starving, since there are plenty of bananas, the main staple for both food and (in distilled form) liquor. Corn, tapioca and yams also help ensure enough food for survival. But apart from the soil, not much of anything works today in Idi Amin's Uganda. Coffee and cotton were Uganda's chief export crops, but Asian and European marketing expertise has gone, and exports have declined drastically. At a time when coffee is at world-record high prices, 2 million bags of it are stockpiled in Kampala awaiting buyers. "They...
...seized the presidency for himself and crushed the Kabaka's followers; King Freddie escaped to London, where he died penniless three years later. Obote never really succeeded in uniting the contending Ugandan tribes, and was easily overthrown in January 1971 in an army coup led by Major General Idi Amin. Obote took refuge in Tanzania...
...antidote to soothe the consuming obsessions of Idi Amin. Some of his opponents, much to their regret, have tried other possibilities. Amin himself has proudly documented at least nine separate attempts on his life. He seems to have a fix on every thought, not to say plan, concerning his enemies. Once last year, as the presidential limousine was driving through northern Uganda, some opponents ambushed the car and pumped it full of machine-gun bullets, killing all the occupants. But Amin had switched cars down the road -and survived. Later, a grenade bounced off Amin's cheek in another...